TOPIC 9

MICRO-TEACHING

SYNOPSIS
This topic will provide an overview of microteaching: its purpose, benefits, structure
and end with practical micro-teaching sessions.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
By the end of this unit, course participants will be able to:

identify the purposes of micro-teaching

realise the benefits of micro-teaching
distinguish the stages and structure of a micro teaching session

FRAMEWORK OF TOPIC

Micro-teaching

Principles and practices

Micro-teaching sessions

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What is Micro-teaching?
Micro-teaching is a professional development tool used by teachers and trainee
teachers (for the purpose of this module these target groups will be referred as
teachers hereafter) to better understand their teaching-learning process. It is part of a
teacher-training programme in which a teachers teaching situation is reduced in
scope and simplified in systematic ways (Wahba, 2003). It is a scaled-down lesson
designed to develop new skills and refine old ones (McKnight, 1971 in Brown, 1975).
A teacher teaches a small group of pupils (or peers) for 10-15 minutes. The lesson is
video-taped and subsequently observed and analysed by the teacher, his or her
peers and the supervisor. Feedback is given to which improvements to the lesson
plan are made based on the recommendations and suggestions.

History of Micro-teaching
Micro-teaching has its roots at Stanford University in the early 1960s. Introduced by
Keith Acheson, a doctoral student, it was applied in the teaching of science but later
modified and extended to language teaching. The session was video-taped which
provided a common frame of reference for the observers (peers and supervisor) to
give immediate feedback.

Purpose of Micro-teaching
Micro-teaching is designed to break down the complex act of teaching into simpler
elements. By analysing the elements, a teacher can determine the areas that need to
be improved to strive towards perfection. Self-evaluation using the video tape allows
the teacher to revisit the lesson and assess the performance based on criteria or
objectives set prior to the lesson. Wahba (2003) outlined three main purposes of
micro-teaching as:

helping teachers understand better the processes of teaching and learning

providing teachers ample opportunities to explore and reflect on their own and
others teaching styles
acquiring new teaching techniques.

Why micro-teach?
As stated earlier, micro-teaching is a professional development tool to enhance ones
teaching. Besides being an effective technique, it is a tool for reflection. By reflecting
on their own teaching styles, it allows the teachers to focus on specific areas which
need to be fine tuned from different perspectives. It helps teachers to scrutinise their
own teaching and hence forth, discover their strengths and weaknesses. Also, it
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makes teachers aware of their own skills and strategies and to pursue self-initiated,
self-directed and self-observed growth (Wahba, 2003).

Stages of a Micro-teaching cycle

The original micro-teaching cycle developed and used at Stanford University
consisted of the sequences Plan Teach Observe (Critique) Replan Reteach
Reobserve. Each cycle is devoted to one specific component of the lesson (e.g. the
set-induction and closure or the presentation stage, etc.), instructional language,
classroom management, or board work. Now, variants of the Stanford model have
evolved. For some, the cycles are made up of the first three sequences of the original
model as is the one used at the New University of Ulster. This new model is more
economical but still upholds the primary purposes: to teach, observe and provide
constructive feedback.

The following diagram illustrates the Stanford model.

PLAN

TEACH

REOBSERV
E

RETEACH

OBSERVE
(CRITIQUE)
REPLAN

Plan
This is the pre-teaching phase where the teacher considers the objectives of the
teaching, selects the content or area to teach and determine the strategies and skills
to deliver. The characteristics of the target group (students) is also be given due
consideration. The objectives, procedures and the teaching aids to be used must be
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clear stated. The lesson should not last more than 15 minutes. The lesson may be
planned by a group.

Teach
This is the all important interactive stage. It involves the teacher executing the lesson
that the group has planned. The teacher practices or focuses on one skill at a time.
The students will be engaged in a variety of activities.

Observe (Critique)
During the teaching, the peers take notes that can be used during the reflective
discussions. This is essential especially if the students are peers as from the
observations the experience provides insights into learning problems that they may
also face. The peers should also decide the aspect to focus.

The feedback session which follows the observation will focus on analysing and
discussing the experiences acquired. It is also a time to reflect on the new
experiences. Ideally, the feedback should be constructive, specific and practical. As
far as possible, stay away from giving the feedback that is vague, judgemental or illtimed. For example, the peers and supervisor should strive in giving comments which
indicate the specific area(s) that are found to be good and interesting instead of
providing a general comment as sometimes you werent clear in your instructional
language.

Replan
At this stage, using the feedback provided, the teacher replans the lesson
incorporating the points of strength and removing the ones that were not skilfully
handled previously.

Reteach
Reteach the lesson to a new group. This is to remove boredom or monotony of the
students (or peers).

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Refeedback
As described above, this is the stage where constructive feedback is provided to help
the teacher improve the lesson.

What to observe during micro-teaching

Since micro-teaching is aimed at helping teachers improve their delivery of the
lesson, the focus of the observation should be made known to the teacher. In short,
the observation should focus on certain aspects and not the whole lesson. This is
done so to enable the teacher to work on one area of weakness at a time and that
over time, the teacher will improve in most, if not all aspects of the lesson.
The following are some areas to observe:

structure
- stages of the lesson
- transition of the lesson from one stage to another (use of transitions)
- use of examples
- use of graphics

delivery
- oral
o volume, rate, pitch
o fluency
-

nonverbal
o gestures (hand and facial)
o eye contact
o use of space
poise

board work
- appearance
o legibility
o use of colored chalk
- arrangement of material
o logical?
o too much or too little written down?
-

use of notations

classroom interaction
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participation encouraged?
handling of questions and answers
giving instructional language

technology use:

appropriate use of technology

does technology engage the learners

does technology increases student understanding

Benefits of Micro-teaching
Being a professional development tool, micro-teaching certainly holds a number of
merits. Below are some suggested by Sathi (2008) bearing in mind, this list is not
exhaustive.

it helps develop and master important teaching skills

it helps to accomplish specific teaching competencies
it caters to the need of individual differences in teacher training
it is more effective in modifying teacher behaviour
it is an individualised training technique
it employs teaching situation for developing skills
it reduces the complexity of the teaching process as it is scaled down
it helps to get deeper knowledge regarding the art of teaching.

Limitations of Micro-teaching
Though the benefits of micro-teaching is undeniable, it carries some limitations.
Among them are:

it is skill orientated instead of content

it being time consuming
it covers only a few specific skills at each teaching session
it deviates from a normal classroom setting, hence the result may not be a true
reflection of a real-time classroom environment

The discussion above is an overview of micro-teaching. Are you ready to carry out
yours? Use the form below to make notations of your peers teaching. Remember to
provide specific and constructive comments where your peer can act upon instead of
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being judgemental. Similarly, be open to comments and not take them too personal.
Treat each suggestion as part of the learning process.

Microteaching Feedback Form

Date:
Session title:
Presenters name:

1. What were the strengths of this mini-lesson? Why?

2. How did the instructor involve the audience?

3. What can you suggest to make the lesson more effective or understandable?

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References
Brown, G. 1975. Microteaching: A program of teaching skills. New York: Methuen &
Co.
Olivero, J.L. 1970. Micro-teaching: Medium for improving instruction. Ohio: Charles
E. Merril Publishing Company.
Sathi, K. 2008. Introduction to microteaching.
http://sathitech.blogspot.com/2008/11/introduction-to-micro-teaching.html.
Retrieved: 17.8.2012
Wahba, E.H. 2003 Microteaching. English teaching forum. October, p. 44.

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